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It is notorious that the Northern dialect admits Scandinavian words freely; and the same is true, to a lesser degree, of East Midland.

They are rare in Southern, and in the Southern part of West Midland.

The constant invasions of the Danes, and the subjection of England under the rule of three Danish kings, Canute and his two successors, have very materially increased our vocabulary; and it is remarkable that they have perhaps done more for our dialects than for the standard language. The ascendancy of Danish rule was in the eleventh century; but (with a few exceptions) it was long before words which must really have been introduced at that time began to appear in our literature. They must certainly have been looked upon, at the first, as being rustic or dialectal. I have nowhere seen it remarked, and I therefore call attention to the fact, that a certain note of rustic origin still clings to many words of this class; and I would instance such as these: bawl, bloated, blunder, bungle, clog, clown, clumsy, to cow, to craze, dowdy, dregs, dump, and many more of a like character.

I do not say that such words cannot be employed in serious literature; but they require skillful handling.

For further information, see the chapter on "The Scandinavian Element in English," in my _Principles of English Etymology, Series I_.

With regard to dialectal Scandinavian, see the List of English Words, as compared with Icelandic, in my Appendix to Cleasby and Vigfusson's _Icelandic Dictionary_. In this long list, filling 80 columns, the dialectal words are marked with a dagger {+*}. But the list of these is by no means exhaustive, and it will require a careful search through the pages of the _English Dialect Dictionary_ to do justice to the wealth of this Old Norse element. There is an excellent article on this subject by Arnold Wall, entitled "A Contribution towards the Study of the Scandinavian element in the English Dialects," printed in the German periodical entitled _Anglia, Neue Folge_, Band VIII, 1897.

I now give a list, a mere selection, of some of the more remarkable words of Scandinavian origin that are known to our dialects. For their various uses and localities, see the _English Dialect Dictionary_; and for their etymologies, see my Index to Cleasby and Vigfusson. Many of these words are well approved and forcible, and may perhaps be employed hereafter to reinforce our literary language.

_Addle_, to earn; _and_ (in Barbour, _aynd_) sb., breath; _arder_, a ploughing; _arr_, a scar; _arval_, a funeral repast; _aund_, fated, destined; _bain_, ready, convenient; _bairns' lakings_, children's playthings; _beck_, a stream; _big_, to build; _bigg_, barley; _bing_, a heap; _birr_, impetus; _blaeberry_, a bilberry; _blather_, _blether_, empty noisy talk; _bouk_, the trunk of the body; _boun_, ready; _braid_, to resemble, to take after; _brandreth_, an iron framework over a fire; _brant_, steep; _bro_, a foot-bridge with a single rail; _bule_, _bool_, the curved handle of a bucket; _busk_, to prepare oneself, dress; _caller_, fresh, said of fish, etc.; _carle_, a rustic, peasant; _carr_, moist ground; _cleck_, to hatch (as chickens); _cleg_, a horse-fly; _coup_, to exchange, to barter; _dag_, dew; _daggle_, to trail in the wet; _dowf_, dull, heavy, stupid; _dump_, a deep pool.

_Elding_, _eliding_, fuel; _ettle_, to intend, aim at; _feal_, to hide; _fell_, a hill; _fey_, doomed, fated to die; _flake_, a hurdle; _force_, a water-fall; _gab_, idle talk; _gain_, adj., convenient, suitable; _gait_, a hog; _gar_, to cause, to make; _garn_, yarn; _garth_, a field, a yard; _gate_, a way, street; _ged_, a pike; _gilder_, a snare, a fishing-line; _gilt_, a young sow; _gimmer_, a young ewe; _gloppen_, to scare, terrify; _glare_, to stare, to glow; _goam_, _gaum_, to stare idly, to gape, whence _gomeril_, a blockhead; _gowk_, a cuckoo, a clown; _gowlan_, _gollan_, a marigold; _gowpen_, a double handful; _gradely_, respectable; _graithe_, to prepare; _grice_, a young pig; _haaf_, the open sea; _haver_, oats; _how_, a hillock, mound; _immer-goose_, _ember-goose_, the great Northern diver; _ing_, a lowlying meadow; _intake_, a newly enclosed or reclaimed portion of land; _keld_, a spring of water; _kenning_, knowledge, experience; _kilp_, _kelp_, the iron hook in a chimney on which pots are hung; _kip_, to catch fish in a particular way; _kittle_, to tickle; _lain_, _lane_, to conceal; _lair_, a muddy place, a quick-sand; _lait_, to seek; _lake_, to play; _lathe_, a barn; _lax_, a salmon; _lea_, a scythe; _leister_, a fish-spear with prongs and barbs; _lift_, the air, sky; _lig_, to lie down; _lispund_, a variable weight; _lit_, to dye; _loon_, the Northern diver; _lowe_, a flame, a blaze.

_Mense_, respect, reverence, decency, sense; _mickle_, great; _mirk_, dark; _morkin_, a dead sheep; _muck_, dirt; _mug_, fog, mist, whence _muggy_, misty, close, dull; _neif_, _neive_, the fist; _ouse_, _ouze_, to empty out liquid, to bale out a boat; _paddock_, a frog, a toad; _quey_, a young heifer; _rae_, a sailyard; _rag_, hoarfrost, rime; _raise_, a cairn, a tumulus; _ram_, _rammish_, rank, rancid; _rip_, a basket; _risp_, to scratch; _rit_, to scratch slightly, to score; _rawk_, _roke_, a mist; _roo_, to pluck off the wool of sheep instead of shearing them; _roose_, to praise; _roost_, _roust_, a strong sea-current, a race.

_Sark_, a shirt; _scarf_, a cormorant; _scopperil_, a teetotum; _score_, a gangway down to the sea-shore; _screes_, rough stones on a steep mountain-side, really for _screethes_ (the _th_ being omitted as in _clothes_), from Old Norse _skria_, a land-slip on a hill-side; _scut_, a rabbit's tail; _seave_, a rush; _sike_, a small rill, gutter; _sile_, a young herring; _skeel_, a wooden pail; _skep_, a basket, a measure; _skift_, to shift, remove, flit; _skrike_, to shriek; _slocken_, to slake, quench; _slop_, a loose outer garment; _snag_, a projecting end, a stump of a tree; _soa_, a large round tub; _spae_, to foretell, to prophesy; _spean_, a teat, (as a verb) to wean; _spelk_, a splinter, thin piece of wood; _steg_, a gander; _storken_, to congeal; _swale_, a shady place; _tang_, the prong of a fork, a tongue of land; _tarn_, a mountain pool; _tath_, manure, _tathe_, to manure; _ted_, to spread hay; _theak_, to thatch; _thoft_, a cross-bench in a boat; _thrave_, twenty-four sheaves, or a certain measure of corn; _tit_, a wren; _titling_, a sparrow; _toft_, a homestead, an old enclosure, low hill; _udal_, a particular tenure of land; _ug_, to loathe; _wadmel_, a species of coarse cloth; _wake_, a portion of open water in a frozen lake or stream; _wale_, to choose; _wase_, a wisp or small bundle of hay or straw; _whauve_, to cover over, especially with a dish turned upside down; _wick_, a creek, bay; _wick_, a corner, angle.

Another source of foreign supply to the vocabulary of the dialects is French; a circumstance which seems hitherto to have been almost entirely ignored. The opinion has, I think, been expressed more than once, that dialects are almost, if not altogether, free from French influence. Some, however, have called attention, perhaps too much attention, to the French words found in Lowland Scotch; and it is common to adduce always the same set of examples, such as _ashet_, a dish (F. _assiette_, a trencher, plate: Cotgrave), _gigot_, a leg of mutton, and _petticoat-tails_, certain cakes baked with butter (ingeniously altered from _petits gastels_, old form of _petits gateaux_), by way of illustration. Indeed, a whole book has been written on this subject; see _A Critical Enquiry into the Scottish Language_, by Francisque-Michel, 4to, Edinburgh, 1882. But the importance of the borrowings, chiefly in Scotland, from Parisian French, has been much exaggerated, as in the work just mentioned; and a far more important source has been ignored, viz. Anglo-French, which I here propose to consider.

By Anglo-French is meant the highly important form of French which is largely peculiar to England, and is of the highest value to the philologist. The earliest forms of it were Norman, but it was afterwards supplemented by words borrowed from other French dialects, such as those of Anjou and Poitou, as well as from the Central French of Paris. It was thus developed in a way of its own, and must always be considered, in preference to Old Continental French, when English etymologies are in question. It is true that it came to an end about 1400, when it ceased to be spoken; but at an earlier date it was alive and vigorous, and coined its own peculiar forms. A very simple example is our word _duty_, which certainly was not borrowed from the Old French _devoir_, but from the Anglo-French _duetee_, a word familiar in Old London, but absolutely unknown to every form of continental French.

The point which I have here to insist upon is that not only does our literary language abound with Anglo-French words, but that they are also common enough in our dialects; a point which, as far as I know, is almost invariably overlooked. Neither have our dialects escaped the influence of the Central French of Paris, and it would have been strange if they had; for the number of French words in English is really very large. It is not always possible to discriminate between the Old French of France and of England, and I shall here consider both sources together, though the Old Norman words can often be easily discerned by any one who is familiar with the Norman peculiarities.

Of such peculiarities I will instance three, by way of example. Thus Anglo-French often employs _ei_ or _ey_ where Old French (i.e. of the continent) has _oi_ or _oy_; and English has retained the old pronunciations of _ch_ and _j_. Hence, whilst _convoy_ is borrowed from French, _convey_ is Anglo-French. _Machine_ is French, because the _ch_ is pronounced as _sh_; but _chine_, the backbone, is Anglo-French. _Rouge_ is French, because of the peculiar pronunciation of the final _ge_; but _rage_ is Anglo-French; and _jaundice_ is Anglo-French, as it has the old _j_. See Chapters III-VI of my _Principles of English Etymology, Second Series_.

A good example of a dialect word is _gantry_ or _gauntree_, a wooden stand for barrels, known in varying forms in many dialects. It is rightly derived, in the _E.D.D._, from _gantier_, which must have been an A.F. (Anglo-French) form, though now only preserved in the Rouchi dialect, spoken on the borders of France and Belgium, and nearly allied to Norman; in fact, M. Hecart, the author of the _Dictionnaire_ _Rouchi-Francais_, says he had heard the word in Normandy, and he gives a quotation for it from Olivier Basselin, a poet who lived in Normandy at the beginning of the fifteenth century. The Parisian form is _chantier_, which Cotgrave explains as "a Gauntrey... for hogs-heads to stand on." Here is a clear example of a word which is of Norman, or A.F., origin; and there must be many more such of which the A.F. form is lost. There is no greater literary disgrace to England than the fact that there is no reasonable Dictionary in existence of Anglo-French, though it contains hundreds of highly important legal terms. It ought, in fact, to have been compiled before either the _English Dialect Dictionary_ or the _New English Dictionary_, both of which have suffered from the lack of it.

It would indeed be tedious to enumerate the vast number of French words in our dialects. Many are literary words used in a peculiar sense, often in one that has otherwise been long obsolete; such as _able_, rich; _access_, an ague-fit; _according_, comparatively; _to act_, to show off, be ridiculous; _afraid_, conj., for fear that; _agreeable_, willing; _aim_, to intend; _aisle_, a central thoroughfare in a shop, etc.; _alley_, the aisle of a church; _allow_, to suppose; _anatomy_, a skeleton; _ancient_, an ensign, flag; _anguish_, inflammation; _annoyance_, damage; _anointed_, notoriously vicious; _apron_, the diaphragm of an animal; _apt_, sure; _arbitrary_, impatient of restraint; _archangel_, dead nettle; _argue_, to signify; _arrant_, downright; _auction_, an untidy place, a crowd; _avise_ (for _advise_), to inform. It is needless to go through the rest of the alphabet.

Moreover, dialect-speakers are quite capable of devising new forms for themselves. It is sufficient to instance _abundation_, abundance; _ablins_, possibly (made from _able_); _argle_, _argie-bargie_, _argle-bargle_, _argufy_, all varieties of the verb _to argue_; and so on.

The most interesting words are those that have survived from Middle English or from Tudor English times. Examples are _aigre_, sour, tart, which is Shakespeare's _eagre_, _Hamlet_, I, v 69; _ambry_, _aumbry_, cupboard, spelt _almarie_ in _Piers the Plowman_, B XIV 246; _arain_, a spider, spelt _yreyn_ in Wyclif's translation of Psalm XC 10, which, after all, is less correct; _arles_, money paid on striking a bargain, a highly interesting word, spelt _erles_ in the former half of the thirteenth century; _arris_, the angular edge of a cut block of stone, etc., from the O.F. _areste_, L. _arista_, which has been revived by our Swiss mountain-climbers in the form _arete_; _a-sew_, dry, said of cows that give no milk (cf. F. _essuyer_, to dry); _assoilyie_, to absolve, acquit, and _assith_, to compensate, both used by Sir W. Scott; _astre_, _aistre_, a hearth, a Norman word found in 1292; _aunsel_, a steelyard, of which the etymology is given in the _E.D.D._; _aunter_, an adventure, from the A.F. _aventure_; _aver_, a beast of burden, horse, used by Burns, from the A.F. _aveir_, property, cattle; _averous_, A.F. _averous_, avaricious, in Wyclif's translation of 1 Cor. vi 10.

Here is ample proof of the survival of Anglo-French in our dialects.

Indeed, their chief philological use consists in the great antiquity of many of the terms, which often preserve Old English and Anglo-French forms with much fidelity. The charge often brought against dialect speakers of using "corrupt" forms is only occasionally and exceptionally true. Much worse "corruptions" have been made by antiquaries, in order to suit their false etymologies.

CHAPTER X

LATER HISTORY OF THE DIALECTS

With the ascendancy of East Midland, and its acceptance as the chief literary language, the other dialects practically ceased to be recorded, with the exception (noted above) of the Scottish Northumbrian. Of English Northumbrian, the sixteenth century tells us nothing beyond what we can glean from belated copies of Northern ballads or such traces of a Northern (apparently a Lancashire) dialect as appear in Spenser's _Shepherd's Calendar_. Fitzherbert's _Boke of Husbandry_ (1534) was reprinted for the E.D.S. in 1882. It was written, not by Sir Anthony Fitzherbert, as I erroneously said in the Preface, but by his brother, John Fitzherbert, as has been subsequently shown. It contains a considerable number of dialectal words. Thomas Tusser (1525-1580), born in Essex, wrote _A Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandrie_ (1557), and _Fiue Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie_ (1573); see the edition by Payne and Herrtage, E.D.S., 1878. He employs many country words, presumably Essex. The dialect assumed by Edgar in Shakespeare's _King Lear_ is not to be taken as being very accurate; he talks somewhat like a Somersetshire peasant, but I suppose his speech to be in a conventional stage dialect, such as we find also in _The London Prodigall_, Act II, Sc. 4, where Olyver, "a Devonshire Clothier," uses similar expressions, viz.

_chill_ for _Ich will_, I will; and _chy vor thee_, I warn thee.

Towards the end of the seventeenth century, the value of dialectal words as helping to explain our English vocabulary began to be recognised. Particular mention may be made of the _Etymologicon Linguae Anglicanae_, by Stephen Skinner, London, 1671; and it should be noted that this is the Dictionary upon which Dr Johnson relied for the etymology of native English words. At the same time, we must not forget to note two Dictionaries of a much earlier date, which are of high value. The former of these is the _Promptorium Parvulorum_, completed in 1440, published by the Camden Society in 1865; which contains a rather large proportion of East Anglian words. The second is the _Catholicon Anglicum_, dated 1483, ed. S.J. Herrtage, E.E.T.S., 1881, which is distinctly Northern (possibly of Yorkshire origin).

We find in Skinner occasional mention of Lincolnshire words, with which he was evidently familiar. Examples are: _boggle-boe_, a spectre; _bratt_, an apron; _buffet-stool_, a hassock; _bulkar_, explained by Peacock as "a wooden hutch in a workshop or a ship."

The study of modern English Dialects began with the year 1674, when the celebrated John Ray, Fellow of the Royal Society, botanist, zoologist, and collector of local words and proverbs, issued his _Collection of English Words not generally used_; of which a second edition appeared in 1691. See my reprint of these; E.D.S., 1874. This was the first general collection, and one of the best; and after this date (1674) many dialect words appeared in English Dictionaries, such as those of Elisha Coles (1676, and four subsequent editions); John Kersey (1708, etc.); Nathaniel Bailey (1721, etc.); N. Bailey's _Dictionary_, Part II, a distinct work (1727, etc.). The celebrated _Dictionary_ by Dr Johnson, 2 vols., folio, London, 1755, owed much to Bailey. Later, we may notice the _Dictionary_ by John Ash, London, 1775; and Todd's edition of Johnson, London, 1818. It is needless to mention later works; see the Complete List of Dictionaries, by H.B.

Wheatley, reprinted in the E.D.S. Bibliographical List (1877), pp.

3-11; and the long List of Works which more particularly relate to English Dialects in the same, pp. 11-17. Among the latter may be mentioned _A Provincial Glossary_, by F. Grose, London, 1787, second edition 1790; _Supplement to the same_, by the late S. Pegge, F.S.A., London, 1814; and _Glossary of Archaic and Provincial_ _Words_, by the late Rev. J. Boucher, ed. Hunter and Stevenson, 1832-3. The last of these was attempted on a large scale, but never got beyond the word _Blade_; so that it was practically a failure. The time for producing a real Dialect Dictionary had not yet come; but the valuable _Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language_, by J. Jamieson, published at Edinburgh in 4 vols., 4to, in 1808-25, made an excellent beginning.

The nineteenth century not only accumulated for our use a rather large number of general works on Dialects, but also a considerable quantity of works illustrating them separately. I may instance those on the dialect of Bedfordshire, by T. Batchelor, 1809; of Berkshire, by Job Lousley, 1852; Cheshire, by R. Wilbraham, 1820, 1826; East Anglia, by R. Forby, 1830, and by Nall, 1866; Teesdale, co. Durham, by F.T.

Dinsdale, 1849; Herefordshire, by G.C. Lewis, 1839; Lincolnshire, by J.E. Brogden, 1866; Northamptonshire, by Miss A.E. Baker, 2 vols., 1854; the North Country, by J.T. Brockett, 1825, 1846; Somersetshire, by J. Jennings, 1825, 1869; Suffolk, by E. Moor, 1823; Sussex, by W.D.

Cooper, 1836, 1853; Wiltshire, by J.Y. Akerman, 1842; the Cleveland dialect (Yorks.), by J.C. Atkinson, 1868; the Craven dialect, by W.

Carr, 1824; and many more of the older type that are still of value.

We have also two fairly good general dictionaries of dialect words; that by T. Wright, 1857, 1869; and that by J.O. Halliwell, 2 vols., 1847, 11th ed., 1889. See the exhaustive Bibliographical List of all works connected with our dialects in the _E.D.D._, pp. 1-59, at the end of vol. VI.

In 1869 appeared Part I of Dr A.J. Ellis's great work on _Early English Pronunciation_, with especial reference to Shakespeare and Chaucer; followed by Part II of the same, on the Pronunciation of the thirteenth and previous centuries, of Anglo-Saxon, Icelandic, Old Norse, and Gothic. In 1871 appeared Part III of the same, on the Pronunciation of the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries. Part IV was then planned to include the Pronunciation of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries, including the Phonology of the Dialects; and for this purpose it was necessary to gain particulars such as could hardly be accomplished without special research. It was partly with this in view, and partly in order to collect material for a really comprehensive dictionary, that, in 1873, I founded the English Dialect Society, undertaking the duties of Secretary and Director. The Society was brought to an end in 1896, after producing 80 publications and collecting much material. Mr Nodal, of Manchester, was Secretary from 1876 to 1893; and from 1893 to 1896 the headquarters of the Society were in Oxford. Besides this, I raised a fund in 1886 for collecting additional material in manuscript, and thus obtained a considerable quantity, which the Rev. A. Smythe Palmer, D.D., in the course of two years and a half, arranged in fair order. But even in 1889 more was required, and the work was then taken in hand by Dr Joseph Wright, who gives the whole account of the means by which, in 1898, he was enabled to issue Vol. I of the _English Dialect Dictionary_. The sixth and concluding volume of this most valuable work was issued in 1905.

To this I refer the reader for all further information, which is there given in a very complete form. At the beginning is a Preface explaining the history of the book; followed by lists of voluntary readers, of unprinted MS. collections, and of correspondents consulted; whilst Vol. VI, besides a Supplement of 179 pages, gives a Bibliography of Books and MSS. quoted, with a full Index; to which is added the _English Dialect Grammar_.

This _English Dialect Grammar_ was also published, in 1905, as a separate work, and contains a full account of the phonology of all the chief dialects, the very variable pronunciation of a large number of leading words being accurately indicated by the use of a special set of symbols; the Table of Vowel-sounds is given at p. 13. The Phonology is followed by an Accidence, which discusses the peculiarities of dialect grammar. Next follows a rather large collection of important words, that are differently pronounced in different counties; for example, more than thirty variations are recorded of the pronunciation of the word _house_. The fulness of the Vocabulary in the Dictionary, and the minuteness of the account of the phonology and accidence in the Grammar, leave nothing to desire. Certainly no other country can give so good an account of its Dialects.

CHAPTER XI

THE MODERN DIALECTS

It has been shown that, in the earliest period, we can distinguish three well-marked dialects besides the Kentish, viz. Northumbrian, Mercian, and Anglo-Saxon; and these, in the Middle English period, are known as Northern, Midland, and Southern. The modern dialects are very numerous, but can be arranged under five divisions, two of which may be called Northern and Southern, as before; whilst the other three arise from a division of the widely spread Midland into subdivisions.

These may be called, respectively, West Midland, Mid Midland (or simply Midland), and East Midland; and it has been shown that similar subdivisions appear even in the Middle English period.

This arrangement of the modern dialects under five divisions is that adopted by Prof. Wright, who further simplifies the names by using Western in place of West Midland, and Eastern in place of East Midland. This gives us, as a final result, five divisions of English dialects, viz. Northern, Western, Midland, Eastern, and Southern; to which we must add the dialects of modern Scotland (originally Northern), and the dialects of Ireland, viz. of Ulster (a kind of Northern), Dublin, and Wexford (a kind of Southern).

No map of dialects is here given in illustration, because it is practically impossible to define their boundaries accurately. Such a map was once given by Dr Ellis, but it is only arbitrary; and Prof.

Wright expressly says that, in his work also, the boundaries suggested are inexact; they are only given for convenience, as an approximation to the truth. He agrees with Dr Ellis in most of the particulars.

Many of the counties are divided between two, or even three, dialects; I somewhat simplify matters by omitting to mention some of them, so as to give merely a general idea of the chief dialectal localities. For fuller information, see the _Dialect Grammar_.

I. The dialects of Scotland may be subdivided into nine groups:

1. Shetland and Orkney. 2. Caithness. 3. Nairn, Elgin, Banff, Aberdeen. 4. E. Forfar, Kincardine. 5. W. Forfar, most of Perth, parts of Fife and Stirling. 6. S. Ayr, W. Dumfries, Kirkcudbright, Wigton. 7. S.E. Argyle, N. Ayr, Renfrew, Lanark. 8. Kinross, Clackmannan, Linlithgow, Edinburgh, Haddington, Berwick, Peebles.

9. E. Dumfries, Selkirk, Roxburgh.

II. Ireland.--Ulster, Dublin, Wexford.

III. England and Wales, in five divisions: (_a_) Northern; (_b_) Midland; (_c_) Eastern; (_d_) Western; (_e_) Southern.

(_a_) Three groups: 1. Northumberland, N. Durham. 2. S. Durham; most of Cumberland, Westmoreland, N. Lancashire, hilly parts of W. Riding of Yorkshire. 3. N. and E. Ridings of Yorkshire.

(_b_) Ten groups: 1. Lincolnshire. 2. S.E. Lancashire, N.E.

Cheshire, N.W. Derby. 3. S.W. Lancashire, S. of the Ribble.

4. Mid Lancashire, Isle of Man. 5. S. Yorkshire; to the S.W. of the Wharfe. 6. Most of Cheshire, N. Staffordshire. 7. Most of Derby. 8. Nottingham. 9. Flint, Denbigh. 10. E. Shropshire, S. Stafford, most of Warwickshire, S. Derby, Leicestershire.

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